THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS

 1957 – Alexander Mackendrick                                                                                                

“You’re a cookie full of arsenic.”  

 synopsis:

New York Broadway, late 1950s:                                                                                              An utterly ruthless newspaper columnist coerces a unscrupulous press agent to destroy his kid sister’s relationship with a musician.

   Broadway is a jungle.                                                                                       There is only the conquerors and the conquered – the powerful strut amongst the glamour and the neon, and the weak are mercilessly exploited and occasionally devoured… to a tantalizing Jazz soundtrack. That Sweet Smell Of Success is as a searing tale of power and human corruption as was ever put to film, is perhaps all the more surprising when considered where it is set.                                                                                                  Burt Lancaster is excellent as the towering embodiment of self-serving malevolence, J.J. Hunsecker, the all powerful newspaper columnist trying to keep control his sister’s life. Ruthlessly Intelligent and armed with a lacerating tongue, he dispenses his justice in a brutal fashion – careers, even lives, hang on his every whim.Tony Curtis contributes a wonderfully oily performance as the venal, double-talking sycophantic press agent who is willing to go to any extremes to climb up the greasy pole of success. The sheer effrontery of some of  the human behaviour on display makes Sweet Smell Of Success such a feast to enjoy.                                                                                                               Some of the best black and white cinematography of an urban space ever by James Wong Howe , the great jazzy score by Elmer Bernstein, and expressive direction by Alexander Mackendrick are only topped off by the bravura whiplash dialogue of Ernest Lehman and Clifford Odets.

“You’re dead, son. Get yourself buried.”

trailer:

links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Smell_of_Success

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051036/?ref_=nv_sr_1

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sweet_smell_of_success/

reviews:

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-sweet-smell-of-success-1957

http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B0CE7DA1338E73ABC4051DFB066838C649EDE

http://www.metacritic.com/movie/sweet-smell-of-success

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SECONDS

  1966  – John Frankenheimer                                                                                                

“What Are Seconds?”

 

synopsis:

Arthur Hamilton (John Randolph) is a middle-aged man whose life has lost purpose. Approached by a secret organization, known simply as the “Company”, he agrees to a procedure that will give him a second chance in life.                                       But Arthur finds “rebirth” comes with it’s own price.

 Seconds is a compellingly paranoid interpretation on the legend of Faust.             This dystopian sci-fi/psychedelic noir is easily one of the darkest, loneliest films ever funded by a Hollywood studio.                                                                                                 It is the third entry in John Frankenheimer’s unofficial “paranoia trilogy” (the other two titles being The Manchurian Candidate and Seven Days in May), and although initially booed at the Cannes Film Festival years ago, this distorted gem has gone on to take it’s rightful place as a classic piece of cinema.                                                             Seconds lies squarely at the intersection of post-McCarthyist paranoia, revisited themes of ‘60s European art cinema and The Twilight Zone. At the same time it largely predicted the crises of masculinity and nightmarish interpretations of the counterculture yet to come in Hollywood cinema.                                                                                                   Seconds, like few other films, questions our fundamental values – it points a chilling finger in the direction of own superficiality, and dissolves our notions of the sanctity of identity with a disquieting ease.                                                                                                              Frankenheimer’s direction of this film, both in style and intent, puts him squarely in the same company as Stanley Kubrick and Orson Welles. Seconds also features a brilliantly innovative opening sequence by Saul Bass, dazzling cinematography of the legendary James Wong Howe, disorientating ambient orchestrations by Jerry Goldsmith and a performance by Rock Hudson which is often regarded as his greatest.

Seconds will crawl under your skin and stay with you long after the film’s end.

trailer:

links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seconds_(film)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060955/?ref_=nv_sr_6

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/seconds/#in-theaters

reviews:

http://www.girlsgunsandghouls.com/seconds.html

http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/seconds-john-frankenheimers-forgotten-60s-masterpiece.php

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2013/08/criterion_collection_edition_of_seconds_directed_by_john_frankenheimer_and.html

http://www.ioncinema.com/news/disc-reviews/criterion-collection-seconds-blu-ray-review

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2013/08/criterion_collection_edition_of_seconds_directed_by_john_frankenheimer_and.html

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